today I want to talk about body positivity what it is and what it isn't hello everyone welcome
make these videos is to help people to understand that your mental health and physical health come
together to create that overall sense of well-being if you guys liked this kind of
video please consider subscribing first I want to just define what the body positive movement
is I'm gonna read you something body positivity is a social movement rooted in the belief that
all human beings should have a positive body image while challenging the ways in
which society presents and views the physical body I want to start by pointing out that body
positivity is about bodies it's not women it's not about empowering women although it will it's
about understanding that bodies our bodies they're not what defines the person so I do believe that
objectification of women has been going on for years we're used to sell everything from cars
to I mean houses to it's ridiculous like women are used to sell things because we look good and
there's some reason we keep associating sex with stuff but this then makes it seem like a person
is a thing and well not specifically a person but a woman is a thing I'm very happy about
body positivity because I do feel that it brings it back to what is supposed to be about because
this is not a women thing or a man thing it's a person thing men now have been objectified as well
I think we're starting to take the objectification of people as sex objects that's important now the
problem that I have is that it's being done in a very negative way it's important to feel good
about your body why well first of all you're in your body all day long if you don't like your body
that's gonna be a negative experience that you're dealing with all of a every day all the time the
way that you see yourself determines how you talk to yourself about you but it also determines how
you interact with other people so how you see you is reflected in how you interact with others so
am i hiding myself from other people am i even avoiding engaging with other people altogether
because I don't think I'm good enough so I don't feel like this body that I'm in is good enough am
i avoiding work am i avoiding healthy situations like exercise socializing am i avoiding my life
because I don't feel comfortable in my body this is happening more often than we understand
that it's happening and it's part of the reason that I wanted to talk about it today we need to
understand that our ability to see ourselves in a very realistic way which means I'm seeing myself
and I see what I like about myself hopefully that I do like what I see in myself but also that I'm
very realistically able to see any flaws that there might be right because nothing and nobody
is perfect so there might be some things that I don't like about me make me that distinction part
of the issue that most people have with their body image is that they're focusing on what
somebody else might like or not like about them and whenever we do that whether it's to do with
the way that I look whether it's to do with how smart I am whether to do with how successful I am
whether it's to do with the kind of activities I enjoy no matter what it's about if I'm more
focused on what other people think of me rather than what I think of me that's always going to be
a problem my values person is equivalent to every other person on the planet but my understanding
and love of me is specific to how I see me and I encourage everyone to love yourself to see
yourself as amazing because you are because you're the only version of you that exists so love what
you do love who you are be who you are embrace it and live it fully because you're the only version
of you that exists now here's what's interesting to me is that what happens when I start doing that
my image of myself is going to change and once my [ __ ] of myself starts to change and I really
start to see how great that I am well right like that's gonna help me to love everything about me
and at the same time still be willing to work on myself because it's not because I see myself as
really great that it doesn't mean I don't have things to work on we always have things to work
on because nobody's perfect so body positivity is really about seeing people ask people right
but your body is what it is which is a vessel to get us through this planet get through this world
right and allows us to engage with other people and to engage activities that's really what a
body is for it's not about the specific shape that your body is taking so what's the positives
of body positivity it puts the focus back on interactions between people interactions with
your world it takes it away from how do I look to other people and there's so many ways to interpret
I just said physically how do I look to other people emotionally like how are people judging
me there's so many ways to take that statement because and that's what makes body positivity so
complicated if you look at this from the point of view that it's about looking a certain way
and then accepting that look we get it wrong it's about understanding that everybody looks
different and yet all bodies are kind of the same because they function a certain way you know they
have two legs two arms but yet at the same time they don't always have two legs into our right so
that everybody is the same and yet we can't be different and yet we function the same way and
yet sometimes we function a little different and it's all okay as long as our body allows us to do
what we are trying to do live our life the way we want to live our life that's what this is about so
body positivity the other positive is it houses to learn to see people as individuals to be able to
look at someone and see the someone because that's what's special about you as I said earlier you are
you I'm the only violet Rivera psychologist daughter with the daughter and two stepsons
and a nice amazing boyfriend like I'm the only violet Rivera like this that exists could there
be someone else named violet Rivera absolutely will she be exactly like me not at all might have
matter of fact the other volunteer can be a man for all we know right it's irrelevant right it's
about understanding that we're all different we're all special in our difference and yet we're all
the same because we're all people which brings me to the negatives of body positivity because
there are a few negatives that I've noticed one thing that I've noticed is that it puts forward
the idea that being overweight isn't a problem and although for some people being overweight isn't a
problem for other people it is it's not a blanket statement that says that because we are trying to
understand that every person's body is the vessel that they travel through the world in if you know
and it's not supposed to be judged as a part of their value as a part of their worth it doesn't
mean that because we make that decision that then if someone decides to lose weight they're doing
something wrong that's the tone that I've noticed when I watch videos on YouTube about party body
positivity that someone will be I want to say chastise I want to say you know they're being
degraded and they're being attacked for deciding to lose weight so we'll have someone in the you
know the influencer world putting out videos living their life and then they publicly decide
you know I'm gonna share with you guys that I've been trying to lose weight and all of a sudden
they're being shamed for wanting to do something that they think is better for their health now and
I'm not even talking about the way they decide to lose weight just the fact that they're deciding to
lose weight to begin with it's not because I agree with body positivity that I'm not allowed to try
to lose weight or gain weight for that matter if I decide next month that I want to try to put on
some muscle I believe it's my choice and people shouldn't attack me for taking that decision right
for deciding that it's okay for me to weigh a little more I shouldn't be attacked for that it's
a choice that I'm allowed to make the other issue I see with body positivity is is being used as an
excuse so and this is a hard one to say out loud because I'm not trying to say that any particular
person has to lose weight however when there are metabolic issues that are apparent and people use
body positivity as the reason that they don't really need to address their metabolic issues I
see that as a problem because what it seems to me is that you're taking something that's very
positive and saying well if everyone is saying that it's fine to be in the body that you're in
which is absolutely true it is fine to be in the body that you're in then I shouldn't have to do
anything to change anything ever and that's not sure if there's medical things that are happening
to you because of the weight you're at I still agree that we because we care about ourselves and
want to live a healthy long life hopefully have a responsibility to ourselves to do the things that
help us to be healthy I think the big question is how do I think body positivity should be used by
the world because it's an interesting idea and I think that body positivity is really closely
linked to self-image which is very closely linked to self-esteem if I have a good self-image that
means that I see myself in a positive light if I have high self-esteem that means I think very well
of myself and I feel like I'm able to accomplish and to do people who have poor self-image and body
image issues tent at also have low self-esteem not see themself as the people and I see themselves as
capable and I see themselves as right and the way that I think that this can be helpful is that by
allowing people to understand that you so who you are is what's important it allows us to put
our attention on being the best version of myself that I can possibly be when I start with thinking
about how does father think about who she is as a person then it's about taking decisions about the
things that I do and whether I feel like they're in line with the person that I am and I feel like
my high school years was a great example of this you see I remember in high school in my early year
so great 7 and 8 like hanging out with people and wanting to really spend a lot of time with the my
peer group and doing all the things that they were doing and realizing that the way that my
peer group was behaving didn't fall in line with the values that we had at home so one of the major
ones being that I had a lot of people in my pair group who had no problem with skipping classes I
had a lot of people in my paratroop that seemed to wanna like smoke and and just hang it just
not necessarily focused on school as I mentioned to you guys I grew up in a household where the
thought was us the parents we do our thing what we're supposed to do right so we're gonna provide
for you guys and and we're gonna make sure that you got everything you need and your job is to
do well in school be polite and grow up to be good people and honestly I felt like my peer group in
grade 7 and 8 didn't match who I wanted to be fast forward to grades 9 10 11 CJ University I started
to allow myself to be with the people who matched what I was taught in my home and I actually felt
myself getting along better I felt more in line with who I was similar things happen with stuff
like wearing makeup personally so my mom wears makeup my daughter wears makeup my grandmother
wore makeup well all of my aunts were makeup when it was my time so when I was allowed to
wear makeup which was actually much younger in life than I thought my parents will let me for
all the things they were strict about guess what I didn't like it first of all I had an
allergic reaction to one of the things that my mom helped me put on the second of all I didn't look
like me anymore and I kind of liked looking like me how I dressed I remember I up until
the age of like 30 I wore heels all the time I was always dressed in very fancy itch clothing
to go to work and eventually in the process of working and being in an office and wanting to
feel comfortable decided to really realize that I would much rather wear comfortable clothing
so be comfortable in my shoes become I'd rather be comfortable at work and be able to work at
ease and save dressing up for when I had to go to court and when I had to write when I had to
be with clients again I think the thing that I've realized over time is that it's so much better to
live the life that reflects who you truly are and then when you're living that life it affects what
you truly are if you're comfortable with who you are then you're comfortable in your skin
and that's the thing that comes back to me at the beginning of everything if anyone has seen
my before and after pictures from Quito what you're gonna notice is that I'm smiling in the
pictures and when I look at my pictures and trust me there's not a lot of pictures only
because I'm usually the photographer but but when I add in pictures I'm smiling I've seen
people taking pictures that they look like they want to just fall into a hole and not be in the
picture because they're so uncomfortable with how they look I want everyone to understand that if
you're not happy with who you are if you're not happy with the way you look if you're not it's
gonna impact the way that you interact with other people the back-and-forth is going to be affected
your enjoyment of life is going to be affected it is so important for us to understand that the
best way that you can make sure that you're living the happiest life that you possibly
can is to accept who you are accept the body that you're in and then work towards being the
best possible version of yourself that you can when you're trying to be that best version of
yourself you're gonna decide if the weight you are right now matches the activities that you
want to do you're gonna decide if you feel like you're too heavy you'll decide to lose weight if
you feel like you're too light you'll decide to gain weight but you're gonna decide you know if
I decide tomorrow that what I really want to do is get into boxing I'm gonna have to gain some
weight it's not always about losing and it's not always about sexual attraction right I feel like
we need to understand that we are not purely sex objects I'm talking both men and women because
the objectification has become for men and women we are people and our bodies are vessels to help
us to enjoy life and we're supposed to fuel that body with good quality food you all know what I'm
gonna say eat a healthy ketogenic lifestyle less than 20 grams of carbs or less so that you can
build the best quality body grass-fed organic if you can afford it but at the minimum good quality
the best quality meat and the lowest glycemic vegetables that you possibly can afford to help
you to build that amazing body that's strong enough and healthy enough to take you forward
till you're 105 but you can play if your children and your grandchildren and maybe even those
great-grandchildren great-great-grandchildren be a true wellness warrior and prioritized being
healthy and being in this amazing strong body over catering to what other people might think
of what your body looks like at the end of the day it's only you that determines whether or not this
feels amazing to you whether or not you're doing the things that you truly want to do living the
life you truly want to live enjoying yourself to the fullest it's you that determines that
nobody else I really hope you guys found this video helpful and I thank my wellness workers
for coming by as usual you guys inspired me to keep making new videos body positivity can
be an amazing good thing let's use it wisely I wanna thank you for watching mind-blowing health
and also violet if you want to contribute to my patreon feel free and if you'd like to use the
Amazon links so that we can make contributions to the channel that way all the information for
that is in the description below do I talk to you guys again next week have a great day